Handle-bar for velocipedes



(No Model.)

G. HAYNES, Jr.

HANDLE BAR PO-R VELOOIPEDES.

Patented Nov. 6, 1888..

1 Ultimo STATE ATENT rricn,

GIDEON HAYNES, JR, OF HINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE POPE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE.

HANDLE-BAR FOR VELOCIPEDESf SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 392,557, dated November 6, 1888.

Application filed February 29, 1888. Serial No. 265,061. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GIDEON HAYNES, Jr., of Hingham, in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain 5 new and useful Improvements in Velocipedes,

of which the following is a specification.

My present improvements relate particu larly to the handlebars and steering-heads of velocipedes, and I shall show and describe :0 them as embodied and applied to the steeringhead of a bicycle, although they are also applicable to safeties, tricycles, or other forms of velocipcdcs. In these machines it has been found necessary or desirable to construct the steering mechanism with handles attached to a transverse handle bar or bars connected with the steering-head, bearing handles for the direct application of the hands of the rider at an appropriate average distance apart,one on either side the steering-head at an appropriate average distance apart forward of the seat and at an appropriate average height, this height having a special relation to the position of the seat for the rider, which is necessarily adjustable, and handle-bars have been made in divers forms and with divers curvatures and attached by divers means to secure the relative position of the handles in the above-named respects; but because the seat is 0 adjustable vertically for adaptation to riders of different height or length of limbs it has been found essential that the handles should also be adjustable vertically to correspond, and heretofore this Vertical adjustment of 3 5 handles has been obtained either by constructing them upon separate adjustable vertical rods at the sides of the machine, as in tricycles, or upon a central adjustable vertical or inclined rod sliding in a tubular support, as

0 in some safeties and some tricycles, in each of these methods the support of the handle or handlebar being adjustable vertically. It has also been proposed heretofore to make the handle-bars of bicycles vertically adjustable by attaching them to a sliding bracket on the front of the steering-head, so that they could be raised or lowered, and thus raise or lower the handles with them.

It is the object of my improvements to pro- Vide a mechanism for the raising and lowering of the handles by different means which shall avoid some of the objections of the methods I have named, and which shall be applicable where those means are not. My contrivance is especially adapted for use where the ma- 5 chine has a short cylindrical steering-head lo cated above a single guiding-wheel and imme diately in front of the rider,as in the ordinary bicycle and as in some forms of safety machines. If the handle-bars, according to one of the methods I have suggested, are attached to a sliding bracket on the front of the steering-head, there are three objections in particular met: the distance through which the handles can be adj usted is short, the means of attachment are not rigid or so flicieutly strong, and the adjustment of the handles is accompanied by an equal raising and lowering of the handle-bar through its whole leugth,which interferes with the action of the riders legs.

In carrying out my improvements I make the handle-bar in'two parts. Each part I attach securely and rigidly to the steering-head, and each part I make adjustable in height at its outer end, not by raising or lowering the handle-bar and handle entirely through an equal distance, but by swinging the handle through an arc of a circle about a center in or near the means of attachment to the steeringhead, so that while the handle is moved through a considerable vertical distance the inner ends of the handle-bar or that part approximate to the steering-head, and which is near the range of the riders leg, moves through an inconsiderable distance.

In the drawings, Figure lshows in perspective front viewasteering-head and handle-bar mechanism of a bicycle embodying my improvements in one form. Fig. 2 shows parts of the same in front elevation with the handie-bars changed in position and the dotted lines showing the original position of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows parts of the same in top plan; and Fig. 4 shows a modified form in detail, as will be more fully described.

A is the perch, A the neck, and B the cylindrical steering head of a bicycle, having the arch B for the forks which span the guiding-wheel, and the adjusting-bolt B and. setnut 13, for securing the perch and the steering- I60 head with a spindle and centers or swiveljoint.

0 C are ears or lugs, one projecting from or formed upon either side of the steering-head. D D are the two similar corresponding parts of a handle-bar, or, as they may be called, two like handle-bars, bearing the handles D D, and these bars may be solid or tubular,straight or curved, or in any suitable form or shape; but I prefer to make them curved in the form known as cow-horn, and'I prefer to chamfer or halve the inner ends and let them lap, as shown, and perforate the two lapping portions.

Eisa steadying bolt or screw passing through the halve lapping portions of the handlebars, and entering a threaded hole or slot, F or F, in the front side of the steering-head.

G G are clamps or lugs, one on each handlebar, which I prefer to make with a cylindrical seat fitting upon the handle-bar D, and shrunk, sweated, soldered, or otherwise secured in position thereon, and which I prefer to make with a tenon, G, of slightly-conical shape, fitting corresponding seat in the ear C, to and in which it is secured by means of a nut, G

With this construction it is obvious that by slacking the nuts G G and withdrawing the screw E from the hole F the inner lapping ends of the handle-bars may be raised or the bars vibrated about the centers of the tenons G G, so that the bolt E, passing through the lapped ends D Dof the bars, maybe inserted in the hole or slot F, thereby giving the handles D D a considerably lower'position. It is also obvious that (the perforations in the lapping parts D" D being in the form of elongated slots) other slots, like F F, maybe made in the front side of thesteering-head, and three, four, or more positions of the handles afforded, instead of two, and that these positions may be regulated by arranging the distances of the slots E F apart. It is also obvious that with this construction the strain of the handle-bar is taken by the lug G, and that the bar will be sufficiently held without reference to the pin E, which I prefer to use, however, as a steadyiug-pin and also as a guide. It is also obvious that instead of using this guide and steadying-pin E and the lapped ends D D, I may make the tenons Ghexagonal or of any irregular shape, so as to make a positive adjustment and securement of the handles in different positions.

It is also obvious that instead of making the handle-bar oscillate about the center of the tenon G, I may make it oscillate about any other center-as, for instance, I may connect the ends of the handlebars by afixed pivot-center, E, as shown in Fig. 4, and I may make the clamps G adjustable to different seats, as G G in the lug G, as shown in Fig. it-making the clamp movable through a slight distance to two or more positions, instead of being held in one position and movable about its axis, and then a similar result will be obtained-namely, a considerable adjustment of the handle by an inconsiderable movement of the inner end of the handle-bar. It is also obvious that the form of these clamps G and of the lugs O, as well as divers other details of construction and arrangement, may be varied without departing from the substance of my invention, and I do not mean to limit myself precisely to the things shown and described.

I am aware of Letters Patent No. 323,066 and No. 325,014, in which are shown a handle bar in three or four parts, an outer part or handle end being jointed (outside of and some distancefrom the head and its lug) to an inner or head part by asingle device and held either by a spring-catch or a thumb-screw; and I do not claim anything therein shown and described; but in my improved construction the handle-bar is in two parts, the division being in the middle at the steering-head, and each part is held pivotally directly to the steeringhead or a lug or ear thereon, with a positive fulcrum and a positive trip and by a rigid and secure attachment of the bar.

. I claim as new and of my invention- 1. The combination of a head and car, as B O, a-handle-bar, as D, and a fulcrum-lug, as G, securing it. to the ear, and a device or devices, substantially as set forth, for positivelystopping the inner end of the handle-bar at different angles with the axis of the steering-head.

2. The combination, with a velocipede steering-head and handles, of a handle-bar in two parts, each part held pivotally to the steeringhead or a projection therefrom, and having a positive trip, as E, operating between the inner end of the handle-bar and the head, so as to be secured in different positions to raise and lower the handles.

3. The combination, with a steering-head and lug, as B C, of a handle-bar, as D, and a movable clamping device, as G G G whereby the handle-bar may be adjusted in position and the handle raised or lowered, as set forth.

4. In a velocipede handlebar mechanism, a handle-bar constructed in two parts, held pivotally at or near their inner ends to the steering-head or to lugs thereon, and with suitable devices for adjusting and securing the inner ends to the head at different angles to raise and lower' the outer ends, essentially as set forth.

GIDEON HAYNES, JR.

7i tnesses:

W. H. Donn, ERNEs'r B. BENSON. 

